28 November 2002 LOCOMOTION by Jacqueline Woodson, Putnam, January 2003

POETRY POEM

You don't just get to write a poem once

You gotta write it over and over and over

until it feels real good to you

And sometimes it does

and sometimes it doesn't

That's what's really great

and really stupid

about poetry. 

One lunchtime presentation at NCTE that I won't soon forget was listening to Jacqueline Woodson read extensively from her latest book, LOCOMOTION: 

MAMA

Some days, like today

and yesterday and probably

tomorrow--all my missing gets jumbled up inside of me.

You know honeysuckle talc powder?

Mama used to smell like that. She told me

honeysuckle's really a flower but all I know

is the powder that smells like Mama.

Sometimes when the missing gets real bad

I go to the drugstore and before the guard starts

following me around like I'm gonna steal something

I go to the cosmetics lady and ask her if she has it.

When she says yeah, I say

Can I smell it to see if it's the right one?

Even though the cosmetics ladies roll their eyes at me

they let me smell it.

And for those few seconds, Mama's alive

again.

And I'm remembering

all kinds of good things about her like

the way she laughed at my jokes

even when they were dumb

and the way she sometimes just grabbed me

and hugged me before

I had a chance to get away.

And the way her voice always sounded good

and bad at the same time when she was singing

in the shower.

And her red pocketbook that always had some

tangerine Life Savers inside it for me and Lili

No, I say to the cosmetics lady. It's not the right one.

And then I leave fast.

Before somebody asks to check my pockets

which are always empty 'cause I don't steal.

Now, I'm somebody who likes to have a book in my hands, rather than on tape, but Jacki Woodson's reading enveloped me in Lonnie's story; LOCOMOTION was the first book I grabbed when I got home yesterday.

"Everybody's doing a brand new dance now

Come on baby, do the Locomotion

I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now

Come on baby, do the locomotion

My little baby sister can do it with ease

It's easier than learning your abc's

So, come on. come on, do the locomotion with me"

--Gerry Goffin & Carole King

LOCOMOTION is a verse novel in which Woodson tells the story of Lonnie Collins Motion (Get it?) who is eleven. He was lucky to survive his premature birth, and then saw his world devastated at seven when his parents were killed in a fire. Next, he is separated from his beloved little sister, Lili. All by himself, Lonnie suffered through the group home ordeal until coming to live with Miss Edna. With the help of his new foster mom, his inspiring teacher, Ms. Marcus, and the poetry through which he reveals his story, Lonnie begins healing from the trauma he's been enduring. There are good friends at school (one who's even a girl), a new big brother, and a regular schedule of visiting with Lili. Life's not all Disneyland, but Lonnie's a survivor who has made the most of his small share of good luck. 

PIGEON

People all the time talking about how much they hate pigeons 'cause pigeons fly by and crap on their heads and then somebody always says That's good luck! That's good luck! so you don't feel all stupid going through your pockets tryna find a tissue to wipe it off and you never find one 'cause you don't be carrying tissues like an old lady so you gotta walk up to some old lady with that pigeon crap on your head and ask her for a tissue and she just goes Don't worry, that's good luck like everybody else and it makes you hate those sky roaches 'cause they're everywhere in the city so you better duck if they fly over your head or else...

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com